We received a question from D’Ette Myers asking about musical instruments, toys, china, and silver service that we have at the mansion.

First, let’s play!

Both the Hegeler and Carus families appear to be passionate about music. The children were expected to know at least two instruments, the first of which was the piano. In the Mansion there is an 1860 Steinway Box Grand, a small player piano, a violin, and two flutes, both of them belonging to Mary Louise Carus who recently passed away. There are also plenty of radios, gramophones, a graphophone, an 1893 Regina music box, a Sonora Victrola record player, and countless music books. There’s also a broken metronome and two small busts of famous composers Wagner and Beethoven. Paul Carus even wrote a bit of music; well, the lyrics to music, anyway! We know that the Hegelers were big fans of Wagner, Beethoven, Shubert, and Strauss because there’s a lot of sheet music from them.

Because most children were expected to play outside back then, there aren’t a lot of toys. There is a dollhouse and some blocks and toy cars, and Alwin Carus talked about playing with little lead soldiers, but there are more outside activity equipment that we have such as tennis racquets, bicycles, skis, and sleds.

Here’s the careful part:

We know that Camilla Hegeler’s wedding China was blue and white Meissen, but as the family expanded and dishes wore out, it appears that other patterns were incorporated. In the Butler’s Pantry are a variety of blue and white patterns, including: Blue Onion, Danube, Delft, Carolina Blue, Spode, and perhaps the best-known blue and white pattern, Blue Willow, made famous for its durability during The Great Depression’s Blue Plate Special.